funnybook of the month: March 2011

In an attempt to nail down the year's best funnybook, I will whittle down the contenders by month. Why? Because the year is ending and a year-end list is what people do.

The Winner: The Walking Dead #83

What I said then: "Horrifyingly well done comics. Set something up as a moral absolute, affirm that moral absolute holds, then threaten to shatter that compass."



Why it's still awesome now: Here's the thing. When I accidentally learned that something truly messed up happened in this issue, I felt like I couldn't be surprised. So the impact of Rick proving that Carl's survival is all that matters by chopping the arm off of his new lover and feeding her to the zombies to ensure his safety was a little diminished. I exhaled, thinking that must be it. Then Carl actually gets shot and Kirkman threatened to remove the moral compass from this series, and my jaw hit the floor.

Was it close? Nothing this month hit me this viscerally. At all.